Brown, Dan, Angels and Demons, Corgi Books 2003 From Publishers Weekly 'Pitting scientific terrorists against the cardinals of Vatican City, this well-plotted if over-the-top thriller is crammed with Vatican intrigue and high-tech drama. Robert Langdon, a Harvard specialist on religious symbolism, is called in by a Swiss research lab when Dr. Vetra, the scientist who discovered antimatter, is found murdered with the cryptic word "Illuminati" branded on his chest. These Iluminati were a group of Renaissance scientists, including Galileo, who met secretly in Rome to discuss new ideas in safety from papal threat; what the long-defunct association has to do with Dr. Vetra's death is far from clear. Vetra's daughter, Vittoria, makes a frightening discovery: a lethal amount of antimatter, sealed in a vacuum flask that will explode in six hours unless its batteries are recharged, is missing. Almost immediately, the Swiss Guard discover that the flask is hidden beneath Vatican City, where the conclave to elect a new pope has just begun. Vittoria and Langdon rush to recover the canister, but they aren't allowed into the Vatican until it is discovered that the four principal papal candidates are missing. The terrorists who are holding the cardinals call in regarding their pending murders, offering clues tied to ancient Illuminati meeting sites and runes. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that a sinister Vatican entity with messianic delusions is in league with the terrorists. Packing the novel with sinister figures worthy of a Medici, Brown (Digital Fortress) sets an explosive pace as Langdon and Vittoria race through a Michelin-perfect Rome to try to save the cardinals and find the antimatter before it explodes. Though its premises strain credulity, Brown's tale is laced with twists and shocks that keep the reader wired right up to the last revelation.' Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. 
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Hawking, Steven W, and G F R Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, Cambridge UP 1975 Preface: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity . . . leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to our universe. Our discussion is principally aimed at developing these two results.' 
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Kamenka, Eugene (editor), The Portable Karl Marx, Penguin Books 1983 Jacket: 'The complete Communist Manifesto . Substantial selections from "On the Jewish Question", The German Ideology, Grundrisse, Capital, and other important studies. Chronology of his life and chief works. Documents, letters and reminiscences that offer a portrait of Marx the man.  
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Knox, Ronald, Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion, University of Notre Dame Press 1994 Amazon customer review: 'Hard not to be very enthusiastic about this magnum opus of Msgr Ronald Knox. . . . This has been one of my favorite books over the years; read and re-read for the sheer joy of reading! Knox takes us on a marvellous journey through history, unveiling some of the mystical and "enthusiastic" movements, going back to Corinth and Montanism, and some of the "enthusiastic" personalities behind these movements. . . . ' gerard77 
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Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' 
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Nielsen, Michael A, and Isaac L Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press 2000 Review: A rigorous, comprehensive text on quantum information is timely. The study of quantum information and computation represents a particularly direct route to understanding quantum mechanics. Unlike the traditional route to quantum mechanics via Schroedinger's equation and the hydrogen atom, the study of quantum information requires no calculus, merely a knowledge of complex numbers and matrix multiplication. In addition, quantum information processing gives direct access to the traditionally advanced topics of measurement of quantum systems and decoherence.' Seth Lloyd, Department of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Nature 6876: vol 416 page 19, 7 March 2002. 
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Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy, and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from Earliest Times to the Present Day, Routledge 1946, 1991 Amazon ditorial reviews: Ray Monk: 'A History of Western Philosophy remains unchallenged as the perfect introduction to its subject. Russell . . . writes with the kind of verve, freshness and personal engagement that lesser spirits would never have permitted themselves. This boldness, together with the astonishing breadth of his general historical knowledge, allows him to put philosophers into their social and cultural context . . . The result is exactly the kind of philosophy that most people would like to read, but which only Russell could possibly have written.'  
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Sommerhalder, R, and S C van Westrehen, The Theory of Computability: Programs, Machines, Effectiveness and Feasibility , Addison-Wesley 1988 Jacket: 'The aim of this book is to provide a rigorous mathematical introduction to the theory of algorithms and computaility, encompassing both the practical and concenptual aspects of the subject. . . . the authors introduce SAL (a Sinple Algorithmic Language) which enables formal definitions of an algorithm abd ab effectively computable function to be given. The book then covers recursion theory, reducibility, Turing machines, complexity theory, abnd finally ends with a discussiobn of variaous complexity classes of combinatorial problmes such as P and NP, and approximating algorithms.' 
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Tanenbaum, Andrew S, Computer Networks, Prentice Hall International 1996 Preface: 'The key to designing a computer network was first enunciated by Julius Caesar: Divide and Conquer. The idea is to design a network as a sequence of layers, or abstract machines, each one based upon the previous one. . . . This book uses a model in which networks are divided into seven layers. The structure of the book follows the structure of the model to a considerable extent.'  
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Veltman, Martinus, Diagrammatica: The Path to the Feynman Rules, Cambridge University Press 1994 Jacket: 'This book provides an easily accessible introduction to quantum field theory via Feynman rules and calculations in particle physics. The aim is to make clear what the physical foundations of present-day field theory are, to clarify the physical content of Feynman rules, and to outline their domain of applicability. ... The book includes valuable appendices that review some essential mathematics, including complex spaces, matrices, the CBH equation, traces and dimensional regularization. ...' 
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Agence France-Presse in Kiev, Ukaine riles Moscow as it announced head of new independent Orthodox church, 'Ukraine announced the leader of a new national church on Saturday, marking an historic split from Russia which its leaders see as vital to the country’s security and independence. The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, said Metropolitan Epifaniy, of the Kiev Patriarchate church, had been chosen as head of the new church. “This day will go into history as a sacred day ... the day of the final independence from Russia,” Poroshenko told thousands of supporters, who shouted “glory, glory, glory”.' back

Al Jazeera and News Aencies, Israelis army razes home of prominent Palestinian actvist, 'The Israeli army has demolished a residential building owned by a prominent Palestinian activist, whose six sons have been imprisoned by Israel. The building, owned by Latifa Abu Hmeid, is located in the Amari refugee camp near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. According to an Anadolu news agency reporter based in the area, Israeli soldiers raided the camp early Saturday, surrounding the building before bringing it down in a controlled demolition. back

Alchemy - Wikipedia, Alchemy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopdia, ' Alchemy (from Arabic: al-kīmiyā) was an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practiced throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, originating in Hellenistic Egypt (primarily Alexandria) between the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. It aims to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects.Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold);the creation of an elixir of immortality; the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease; and the development of an alkahest, a universal solvent.' back

Alex Jordanov, The Game: From the street to Wall Street, back

Algorithmic information theory - Wikipedia, Algorithmic information theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Algorithmic information theory is a subfield of information theory and computer science that concerns itself with the relationship between computation and information. According to Gregory Chaitin, it is "the result of putting Shannon's information theory and Turing's computability theory into a cocktail shaker and shaking vigorously."' back

Andrew J. Cacevitch, The war in Afghanistan isn't a 'stalemate'. The U.S. has lost, 'With the sole exception of Vietnam, the ongoing Afghanistan war represents the greatest failure in U.S. military history. Today, all but a few diehards understand that Vietnam was a debacle of epic proportions. With Afghanistan, it’s different: In both political and military circles, the urge to dodge the truth remains strong.' back

Anne Applebaum, The lure of chaos is leading Britain straight into the abyss, 'But the real point is that nobody knows what will follow, because no nation in modern times has ever deliberately cut itself off from all of its most important trading partners, and ended all of its more important cultural and political relationships, overnight.' back

Aquinas Summa: II, II, 4, 1, Is this a fitting definition of faith: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not?" (Hebrews 11:1), 'I answer that, Though some say that the above words of the Apostle are not a definition of faith, yet if we consider the matter aright, this definition overlooks none of the points in reference to which faith can be defined, albeit the words themselves are not arranged in the form of a definition, just as the philosophers touch on the principles of the syllogism, without employing the syllogistic form.' back

Beatific vision - Wikipedia, Beatific vision - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In Christian theology, the beatific vision (Latin: visio beatifica) is the ultimate direct self communication of God to the individual person. A person possessing the beatific vision reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e. heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, though it encompasses the whole of human experience of joy, happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith. (1 Cor 13:11–12). It is related to the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief in theosis, and is seen in most – if not all – church denominations as the reward for Christians in the afterlife.' back

Craig Timberg and Tony Rom, New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operations scale and sweep, ' A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office.' back

Crusades - Wikipedia, Crusades - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Crusades were a series of intermittent military campaigns in the years from 1096 to 1487, sanctioned by various Popes. In 1095 the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I, sent an ambassador to Pope Urban II requesting military support in the Byzantines' conflict with the westward migrating Turks in Anatolia. The Pope responded by calling Catholics to join what later became known as the First Crusade. One of Urban's stated aims was to guarantee pilgrims access to the holy sites in the Holy Land that were under Muslim control while his wider strategy was to reunite the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom, divided after their split in 1054, and establish himself as head of the united Church. This initiated a complex 200-year struggle in the region.' back

European wars of religion - Wikipedia, European war of religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The European wars of religion were a series of religious wars waged in Europe from ca. 1524 to 1648, following the onset of the Protestant Reformation in Western and Northern Europe. Although sometimes unconnected, all of these wars were strongly influenced by the religious change of the period, and the conflict and rivalry that it produced. This is not to say that the combatants can be neatly categorised by religion or were divided by their religion alone, as this was often not the case.' back

Eye of Providence - Wikipedia, Eye of Providence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Eye of Providence (or the all-seeing eye of God) is a symbol showing an eye often surrounded by rays of light or a glory and usually enclosed by a triangle. It is sometimes interpreted as representing the eye of God watching over humankind (or divine providence). In the modern era, the most notable depiction of the eye is the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, which appears on the United States one-dollar bill.' back

Gabriel Popkin, Trump doesn'twant the public to know what government scientists are doing, ' The U.S. government employs what may be the most talented and accomplished scientific workforce on the planet. More than 60,000 scientists across 20-plus agencies study every topic under the sun, from curing cancer to strengthening national defense to managing forests to mapping the solar system. . . . The public has an obvious interest in knowing whether the more than $66 billion the government spends annually on research and development is being used responsibly and to our benefit.' back

Galileo affair - Wikipedia, Galileo affair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Galileo affair was a sequence of events, beginning around 1610, during which Galileo Galilei came into conflict with both the Catholic Church, for his support of Copernican astronomy, and secular philosophers, for his criticism of Aristotelianism.' back

General covariance - Wikipedia, General covariance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, In theoretical physics, general covariance (also known as diffeomorphism covariance or general invariance) is the invariance of the form of physical laws under arbitrary differentiable coordinate transformations. The essential idea is that coordinates do not exist a priori in nature, but are only artifices used in describing nature, and hence should play no role in the formulation of fundamental physical laws.' back

Great Seal of the United States - Wikipedia, Great Seal of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States federal government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself (which is kept by the United States Secretary of State), and more generally for the design impressed upon it. The Great Seal was first used publicly in 1782.' back

Hilbert space - Wikipedia, Hilbert space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The mathematical concept of a Hilbert space, named after David Hilbert, generalizes the notion of Euclidean space. It extends the methods of vector algebra and calculus from the two-dimensional Euclidean plane and three-dimensional space to spaces with any finite or infinite number of dimensions. A Hilbert space is an abstract vector space possessing the structure of an inner product that allows length and angle to be measured. Furthermore, Hilbert spaces are complete: there are enough limits in the space to allow the techniques of calculus to be used.' back

Holy Motors - Wikipedia, Holy Motors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Holy Motors is a 2012 French-German fantasy drama film written and directed by Leos Carax, starring Denis Lavant and Édith Scob. Lavant plays Mr Oscar, a man like an actor who inhabits several roles, but there are no apparent cameras filming the man's performances. It is Carax's first feature film since 1999. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.' back

Inquisition - Wikipedia, Inquisition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the government system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. It started in 12th-century France to combat religious sectarianism, in particular the Cathars and the Waldensians.' back

Johannes Gutenberg - Wikipedia, Johannes Gutenberg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg c. 1400 – February 3, 1468) was a German blacksmith, goldsmith, inventor, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe with the printing press. His introduction of mechanical movable type printing to Europe started the Printing Revolution and is regarded as a milestone of the second millennium, ushering in the modern period of human history. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.' back

Jonah Weiner, How Boots Riley Infiltrated Hollywood, ' When Boots Riley was done writing the screenplay for his comedy, he figured he needed several name actors and a budget of a few million dollars to actually get it made. He spent decades working as a community organizer, activist and as the frontman of a leftist hip-hop group called the Coup. Riley knew a killer pitch would be necessary: “Trying to get somebody to read your script and you’re a musician?” he asked. “That’s the last person whose script you’re gonna read!” ' back

Karl Marx , The Holy Family or Critique of Critical Criticism Against Bruno Bauer and Company, 'Written with Frederick Engels between September and November 1844; First Published: The book was first published in February 1845, Frankfurt am Main. The work was never translated into English in either man's lifetime' back

Karl Marx - Wikipedia, Karl Marx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Karl Heinrich Marx (Berlin 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the establishment of the social sciences and the development of the socialist movement. He is also considered one of the greatest economists in history. He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Capital (1867 –1894). He often worked closely with his friend and fellow revolutionary socialist, Friedrich Engels.' back

Lorentz transformation - Wikipedia, Lorentz transformation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, the Lorentz transformation or Lorentz-Fitzgerald transformation describes how, according to the theory of special relativity, two observers' varying measurements of space and time can be converted into each other's frames of reference. It is named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz. It reflects the surprising fact that observers moving at different velocities may measure different distances, elapsed times, and even different orderings of events.' back

Lyle Jeremy Rubin, 'A torrent of ghastly revelations': what military service taught me about America, ' Training on a base in California, and later serving in Afghanistan, made me confront the reality of American empire, and the injustice that pervades society at home.' back

Megachurch - Wikipedia, Megachurch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' A megachurch is defined by the Hartford Institute as any Protestant Christian church having 2,000 or more people in average weekend attendance.The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term, first documented in 1984, as a church with an unusually large membership, especially one preaching a conservative or evangelical form of Christianity and also offering a variety of educational and social activities. The concept originated in the mid 19th century, continued into the mid 20th century as a low-key phenomenon, and expanded rapidly through the 1980s and 1990s; it is widely seen across the US in the early 21st century.' back

Minkowski space - Wikipedia, Minkowski space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematical physics, Minkowski space or Minkowski spacetime is a combination of Euclidean space and time into a four-dimensional manifold where the spacetime interval between any two events is independent of the inertial frame of reference in which they are recorded. Although initially developed by mathematician Hermann Minkowski for Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, the mathematical structure of Minkowski spacetime was shown to be an immediate consequence of the postulates of special relativity.' back

Miriam Bankovsky and Jacqui Hoepner , We need to talk about the actual threats to academic freedom in Australian campuses, ' Last week, the Institute for Public Affairs (IPA) published their third annual Free Speech on Campus Audit. It found all but one Australian university (the University of New England) stifles diversity of ideas and academic freedom. The problem isn’t just that the IPA’s analysis has been criticised for its substandard quality by many academics. . . . The major problem is it polarises debate into clear factions. You’re either for universities or against them. This polarisation prevents us from discussing threats to academic freedom that really do exist, some of which universities perpetuate themselves.' back

Nicene Creed - Wikipedia, Nicene Creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Nicene Creed (Greek: Σύμβολον τῆς Νίκαιας, Latin: Symbolum Nicaenum) is the profession of faith or creed that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It forms the mainstream definition of Christianity for most Christians. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea (present day Iznik in Turkey) by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325. The Nicene Creed has been normative for the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Anglican Communion, and the great majority of Protestant denominations.' back

Olivia Willis, Drug experts say yes. Many politicians say no. What's the evidence for pill testing?, ' Following the teenager's death, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian extended her condolences to the young man's family but said her government would not change its stance on pill testing. "Unfortunately, we know that pill testing won't work because it will give people the green light to take substances which in the end could still kill them," she said. But drug and medical experts reject this claim — and say pill testing leads to a reduction in the harms associated with drug use.' back

Pat Maida and Nick Spornick, The Romantic Englishwoman: Agatha Christie as Mary Westmacott, ' The intense feeling poured into these novels may well have kept Christie in hiding. A shy, introverted woman, Agatha Christie was never one to expose her emotions, But she may have needed a way to channel this dimension of herself, which could never be expressed within the confines of a detective story.' back

Phase (waves) - Wikipedia, Phase (waves) - Wikipedia, the fre encyclopedia, 'The phase of an oscillation or wave is the fraction of a complete cycle corresponding to an offset in the displacement from a specified reference point at time t = 0. Phase is a frequency domain or Fourier transform domain concept, and as such, can be readily understood in terms of simple harmonic motion. The same concept applies to wave motion, viewed either at a point in space over an interval of time or across an interval of space at a moment in time. Simple harmonic motion is a displacement that varies cyclically' back

Planck units - Wikipedia, Planck units - Wikipedia, the free encycloedia, ' In particle physics and physical cosmology, Planck units are a set of units of measurement defined exclusively in terms of five universal physical constants, in such a manner that these five physical constants take on the numerical value of 1 when expressed in terms of these units. Originally proposed in 1899 by German physicist Max Planck, these units are also known as natural units because the origin of their definition comes only from properties of nature and not from any human construct. Planck units are only one system of several systems of natural units, but Planck units are not based on properties of any prototype object or particle (that would be arbitrarily chosen), but rather on only the properties of free space.' back

Quantum entanglement - Wikipedia, Quantum entanglement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon which occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the state of the other(s), even when the particles are separated by a large distance—instead, a quantum state must be described for the system as a whole. . . . Entanglement is considered fundamental to quantum mechanics, even though it wasn't recognized in the beginning. Quantum entanglement has been demonstrated experimentally with photons, neutrinos, electrons, molecules as large as buckyballs, and even small diamonds. The utilization of entanglement in communication and computation is a very active area of research.' back

Ross Garnaut, Craig Emerson and Reuben Finighan, Here's a long-term budget fix that would boost investment: replace company tax with cashflow tax, ' Rather than waiting for the world to reach an agreement to act against multinational corporations that shift profits to tax havens, Australia should consider adopting our proposal for a cashflow tax, which would increase both investment and government revenue. . . . In a new paper for the Melbourne Economic Forum, we propose replacing the conventional corporate income tax with what we are calling a “cashflow tax” to mitigate these problems while encouraging new private capital investment in Australia.' back

Sorry to Bother You - Wikipedia, Sorry to Bother You - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Sorry to Bother You is a 2018 American absurdist dark comedy film written and directed by Boots Riley, in his directorial debut. It stars Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer. Set in Oakland, California, the film follows a young African-American telemarketer who adopts a white accent in order to succeed at his job. Once he does, he gets swept up into a corporate conspiracy, and must choose between making money at the expense of humanity and joining with his activist friends to organize labor.' back

Tim Berners-Lee - Wikipedia, Tim Berners-Lee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA FBCS (born 8 June 1955), . . . is an English engineer and computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is currently a professor of computer science at the University of Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989, and he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in mid-November the same year.' back

Timor mortis conturbat me - Wikipedia, Timor mortis conturbat me - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Timor mortis conturbat me is a Latin phrase commonly found in late medieval Scottish and English poetry, translating to "fear of death disturbs me". The phrase comes from a responsory of the Catholic Office of the Dead, in the third Nocturn of Matins:[1] Peccantem me quotidie, et non poenitentem, timor mortis conturbat me. Quia in inferno nulla est redemptio, miserere mei, Deus, et salva me. "Sinning daily, and not repenting, the fear of death disturbs me. Because there is no redemption in Hell, have mercy on me, O God, and save me."' back

Washington Post Editorial, With Matthis leaving, be afraid, ' THE RESIGNATION of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis propelled a bipartisan wave of anxiety across Washington and many other world capitals, and for good reason. Mr. Mattis was a rock of stability in an otherwise chaotic administration, and his anounced departure followed a pair of precipitous and reckless decisions by President Trump: the removal all U.S. forces from Syria and a 50 percent force reduction in Afghanistan.' back

William James, Psychology: The Briefer Course, 'The definition of Psychology may best be given in the words of Professor Ladd, as the description and explanation of states of consciousness as such. By state of consciousness are meant such things s sensations desires emotions cognitions, reasonings, decisions, volitions, and the like. Their 'explanation' must of course include the study of their causes, conditions, and immediate consequences, as far as these can be ascertained. back